REVIEW: Being Mr Wickham at the Regency Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, by Original Theatre Online

The last venue I visited before the theatre lockdowns started was the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds for a delightful production of Quality Street, an amusing period piece that sat so perfectly on the stage of this wonderful 200-year-old Theatre. The first production we viewed thereafter was a recording of Pride and Prejudice (sort of) a lively fun take on the classic novel from the NST in Southampton which the lockdown prevented us from seeing live. How appropriate therefore that just prior to indoor theatre reopening on the 17th May we get the chance to view a stream of Being Mr Wickham a glorious tour de force performance from Adrian Lukis from the stage of the Theatre Royal based on the imagined reflections of the cad from Pride and Prejudice as he turns sixty. 

Adrian Lukis with Catherine Curzon has written this charmingly clever piece, carefully weaving a back story for key characters from Jane Austen’s novel with historical references to the Duke of Wellington, the Battle of Waterloo, Lord Byron and early 19th-century courtesan Harriet Wilson with scenes from the original book. He invites his audience who he addresses directly through the camera lens to make their mind up about his life. His questionable behaviours and attitudes cast him as the baddie in the classic story and viewed through the 21st Century lens his going “fishing” for young ladies or “having a crack” at her would certainly attract critics, but can we feel sympathy for him or excuse his actions? 

REVIEW: Barnes' People by Original Theatre Online

Original Theatre Online has produced two multi-camera recording of productions and five made for online productions which have been seen in 37 countries in over 33,000 households. Having enjoyed the Excellent Good Grief about two people coping with the death of a close person I was looking forward to Barnes' People with its stellar casting. I don’t recall having seen work by the writer Peter Barnes (1931-2004) on stage, but these four monologues were written for radio in the early eighties and are described as angry, witty, compassionate, poetic and tough. Whether this is the sort of material one wants to view in a third lockdown when the need to be uplifted by hope and humour is strongly felt may be doubtful and requires the writing to be good, the performances strong and the production effective. Each story can be separately purchased to view and although the producers indicate a preferred order to the four pieces, I could see no logic to the order and strongly preferred two over the other two. 

They are all filmed on the stage of the Windsor Theatre Royals in front of a green screen with the props from the other plays scattered over the stage and seen as the actors make their way to the stage for their performances. The Ghost light on a single stand that is seen on stage at the beginning and end of each play is a poignant reminder of empty stages around the country. In some films, the director reminds us during the piece that we are on a stage with shots of stage lights and the auditorium, but I found this an irritating distraction.